Mammal Sightings: Liverpool Home to Rare Water Voles

Merseyside waterways are home to one of the rarest mammals in the UK, according to a new study.

Water voles are the fastest declining mammal in the UK, but the study by Cheshire Wildlife Trust shows one of the highest populations in Sefton.

In Lunt Meadows, 30 water voles were recorded in a 100-metre area compared to the national average of six.

The trust now hopes to secure national recognition and protection for the water vole population.

Dr Tim Graham, Lancashire biodiversity manager, said the Water Vole Project had shown that changes in land use and the fact that American mink prey on water voles had affected numbers.

"Sites on the edge of Sefton may represent a refuge from mink and changes to larger water courses," said Dr Graham.

"The narrow ditches across the intensive agricultural areas of Sefton are ideal habitat with emergent vegetation, steep banks for burrows and slow moving water.

"They are not fussy about the water quality and they are great divers and swimmers, but they can easily be affected by floods which destroy burrows and scour out food supplies.

"Their populations can recover so long as their habitat is maintained and they do not become isolated."

Water voles are also often confused with rats and can be accidentally poisoned by pest controllers, and site developers.

Part of the wildlife trusts' Water Vole Project is to educate people on the difference between a water vole and a brown rat.

"Ratty from The Wind in the Willows does not help matters," Dr Graham continued.

"He is actually a water vole. Water voles are darker than brown common rats, about the same size with a rounder body and shorter, chubbier face with ears which extend just above their fur."

The North West Lowland Water Vole Project is the culmination of four years of work in the North West under the guidance of the Water for Wildlife Programme.

Reference: BBC Liverpool

Sighting of a Deer in Middle of Sale

By Chris Griffin

WILDLIFE lover Graham Ingham got the surprise of his life this week - when he spotted a deer on a main road in Sale.

Graham was driving along residential Brooklands Road on Sunday morning when he saw a deer run across the road about 25 yards in front of him.

It then headed towards him and past his car before turning into a side road, Framingham Road.

Graham pulled up to see it and reached for his mobile phone to take a picture - but then realised he did not have it with him.

Graham, 56, watched the deer as it ran up and down the road, but then drove off and left it as he was concerned he was startling it.

Father-of-two Graham is used to seeing deer in his regular holiday haunt of the Scottish Highlands - but never expected to come across one in the Sale area were has lived all his life.

Experts at Cheshire Wildlife Trust were also taken aback by the sighting.

The National Trust’s Dunham Massey Park, which is five miles away, said there were no reports of any of its deer getting out of the park.

Warehouseman Graham, of Yattendon Avenue, Brooklands, who was heading to work in Trafford Park when he saw the deer at about 6.20am, said: “I couldn’t believe my eyes, I was staggered.

“I see hundreds of roe deer on my holidays in north west Scotland, and at first I thought it was a roe deer.

“But now I think it was a young red deer.”

Graham said that despite the early hour other people were about who could have seen it. He saw a milkman and Metrolink passengers heading to Brooklands station.

Tom Marshall, from Cheshire Wildlife Trust, said: “The sighting of a deer in the heart of Sale is extremely unusual, as compared to other UK counties Cheshire has a fairly limited covering of woodland - the favoured habitat of our larger deer the red, roe and fallow deer.

“Coming across a ‘wild’ deer anywhere in the county would be a startling moment to savour for anyone.

“There has been an increase in deer numbers across parts of the UK in recent years, which has led to more regular sightings in urban parks, cemeteries and larger gardens.

“However in Cheshire deer remain relatively scarce, with a very small herd of around a dozen red deer in Macclesfield Forest one of the few wild groups to be found.”

Graham said the deer was about 3ft 6in to 4ft 6in at the shoulder, with short antlers, brown with an an orangey tan rump spot.

Reference: http://www.messengernewspapers.co.uk

Wildlife Sightings in Cheshire

What Wildlife have you seen in  Cheshire?

Whether its an Insect, Spider, Bird, Mammal, Fish, Mollusc, Reptile, Plant or Fungi let us know! 

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